Police Release New Information In Cross Burning

August 18, 1998|By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY; Courant Staff Writer

MANCHESTER — Police have released new information about a cross burning last month in hopes the public will help them solve the case.

Police are saying for the first time that the suspect could be a middle-aged man. Along with a composite sketch of a man and a description of his van, police have released a photograph of a collapsible shovel found where a 10-foot- tall, wooden cross burned in a field off Olcott Street July 24. A similar incident nearby, which police believe was connected, was reported four days later.

The night of the cross burning, police were told by several people that they had seen two white teenage girls -- one of whom was carrying the cross -- enter an open field near Spencer Street in the west end of town.

Days later, police got a call from a man who was driving with his family in that area the night the cross burned, Lt. Roy Abbie said. The man said he saw a white, middle-aged man carrying a cross across Olcott Street.

The man turned around and drove by again, and then saw the man in the field digging, Abbie said.

The man in the field is described as white, about 40 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall with a medium build and a black-and-grey goatee. He wore blue jeans and a baseball cap with an insignia on the front, police said.

His van was described as a dark blue late '80s or early '90s model Chevrolet conversion van, with a license plate on the right rear door and a spare tire mounted on the left door, police said.

Abbie said the vastly different descriptions of potential suspects is ``problematic.''

A second, similar incident was reported the Tuesday after the cross burning, which police believe was done by the same person or people.

An off-duty firefighter spotted a fire in some grass down the street from the scene of the cross burning, near a Spencer Street entrance ramp to I-384. There, a person or persons poured flammable liquid on the grass in the shape of a cross and lit it on fire, police said.

The Manchester board of directors have offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the incidents. Anyone with information is asked to call the police KLUE LINE at (860) 645-5583 or contact the police department at (860) 645-5500.